Day Sixty-Eight

This is my fist triathlon for the season.  It was a sprint triathlon - but a long one so I will call it a sprintlympic distance (somewhere between a sprint and olympic distance)

I felt prepared and did fine overall.

The night before we had planned to camp at an auburn triathlon recommended campsite.  After I registered and got all the race information we went to look for our campsite.  It was over an hour away.  So we scrapped that and just camped out on the soccer field next to the second transition area.  They were set up for people to camp there.  Besides the railroad that woke us up it was a fine place to camp.  I slept comfortably listening to the rain throughout the night.

The worst part of the day was the beginning.  I had (as did most everyone else) to ride my bike 7 miles to the start.  They race organizers said that this was a great warm up, but it was all downhill!!  So I was freezing before the start.  It took me at least half an hour to regain feeling in my fingers.  To try to put my vibram five fingers on when I could not feel my toes was a painful challenge.

Swim.  The swim was beautiful in the canyon that holds Folsom Lake.  Steam was rising off the water, so much steam that I did not even know where I was going to have to swim because I could not see all of the buoys that mapped out my course.  The water was much warmer than the outside temp (water 64 degrees).  I was thrilled once I touched the water, the fear of freezing was now out of my head.  There were only a few spectators at the swim, only the people that wanted to walk/bike in, since cars were not allowed in the park.  This was really sad not to record the beauty of the swim.  I felt fine at the beginning of the swim, but in the middle kinda had a freak out breast stroke for about 2 minutes.  I think this was because I was so far out.  Normally I swim open water staying close to the shore, so to be all the way out there was a little unnerving..even though I felt strong and was not worried about being too tired.  Actually looking at the course I was really close to the opposite shore, but I did not know that.  Then I missed seeing the last buoy so had to swim longer to get back in line to finish properly.

Bike. The bike started with a 6 mile uphill.  I thought this was going to be hell, but once I was getting ready for the switchbacks I was told that I was done with the switchback.  Nice surprise, except I may have pushed up the last hill harder if I knew that was it.  They must have been very wide, because I never felt like there were any switchbacks.  After the climb the ride was explained as being easy, but it was really up and down and never easy.  The whole time I just wanted to get off the bike.  I was not overly tired, I think I was just bored and done with the bike.  It was through neighborhoods and although it was very well organized and controlled by officers, it was not fun. 

Run. In T2 before the run I had a big gulp of water, which turned out to be a bad decision because it gave me a cramp at the beginning of the run.  As I ran out I took Samara with me.  I thought she might be nice company, and since I was not competing to win, I figured no one would kick us out.  She was thrilled since this was the first time I had seen her in a few days (we had been away and mom was taking care of her).  The beginning of the run was on a somewhat narrow path.  I got stuck behind a number of people here, making me run at their pace, not mine.  After the trail we headed down towards the dam to a turnaround.  This was scary because going down meant we had to come up, but it was not that much of a climb back up.  The mile markers were only at mile one and four, so there was a long time in there I thought that mile two had to be the longest mile of my life.  Running felt good.  Swimming and cycling I was ready to be done with but running I felt I could have gone for much longer. 

What I learned
1) I need to get comfortable open water swimming away from the safety of shore
2) Drink more on the bike, and don't try to make up for that with a big drink before the run
3) Set my pace on the run, don't assume that I will run at the same pace as someone I kept pace with on the bike.   This really slowed me down at the beginning of my run.